We have a glider-rocker in the family room that is now in a more prominent position after we reshuffled the furniture a few nights ago. And because my wife and kids take other, more comfortable seats in the room, the rocker is often my place to take a break. It’s a nice enough piece, but there’s no footrest. Yeah, I know, if that’s as bad as I’ve got it. Anyway…

- Now, the motivation.

Went to bed the night before Thanksgiving thinking it’d be nice to use some of the downtime over the next couple of days (between feasts with both sides of our family) to start and finish a project. One of the books in my nightstand features Shaker storage ideas, and one of the projects is a small, six-board chest. At the size and scale of the feature, I figured it would meet my objective for a small footrest / storage cubby for remotes.

And it could be done in a day.

Game On!

DETAILS

Pulled white oak pieces from the cutoff bin that is the last of the chifferobe that already was rebuilt into a mission-style nightstand in 2010. Per the drawings in the book, this should be enough:

One large panel had to be reduced. Too big for the table saw or RAS, so with a nod to RG here on Lumberjocks I pulled out the tools needed to do the cuts Galoot style and struck the cut line:

The vintage Bridge Tools handsaw did a fine job. I actually managed to split the pencil line the length of the panel. Couldn’t have done that with my table saw, so I may reach for the hand saws more often.

Used the Beast (#8C) for jointing all edges,

Then it was time for the end boards. Measured in from the sides of the end boards with dividers, then marked a radius. I used a coping saw and rasp to work final shape.

Then I ran into my first problem. One of the sides had a ‘legacy’ glue joint that was clearly failing, so I split the board, glued it up and applied clamps:

While that was setting up, I pu the #5C and #4 to work. The jack went up against a piece with old finish: needed a board clean on both faces for the top. The smoother worked all final surfaces.

With all pieces worked smoother, I notched the end pieces (RAS to hand sawed cross cuts, cleaned up with chisel) and glued up the carcase. A simple bevel was applied around three edges of the top.

Where the side boards met up with the ends, trimming was required. I used the smoother but needed something much smaller. The squirrel tail did the trick!

The combination of stresses from clamping the piece to the benchtop and planing it caused the glue joints to fail. Oh, and having the old finish inside contributed too. So I did some rasp (dull!) work to expose bare wood and glued everything up a second time.

The plan for the top is to rip it across and set in a couple of simple hinges to make a lid. So a montage of pics is in order for the marking, chiseling, and setting of said hinges with pilot holes for the screws.

With the two pieces joined by hinges, I checked the fit. Too much gap, so I have to set in (recess) one side of the each hinge a little further. When that was done, the top looked much better to my eye. Here’s the before and after:

The ‘book’ piece included finish nails that were puttied over before applying primer and paint to the whole piece. Because this piece is white oak, and going in the family room alongside mission pieces, there would be no paint. For strength (seeing how the glue joints already failed once) I decided to use vintage cut nails. I poured out half my inventory and picked what might be six penny nails for straightening. All holes were measured off and marked with dividers, then drilled. Six nails per side.

I marked and predrilled the top, then glued it up.

The bottom was cut, glued and clamped into place. I’m not expecting it to move much at all, but if it does I’ll add cleats later.

I steel-wooled the piece then applied a couple of coats of Watco’s Natural finish.

About three hours was spent the first day, with that many more needed on Day Two. With the project complete, it was time to kick back and spend some time digesting the joys of the holiday. Thanks for looking!

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive --

OH I want your squirrel. Sorry I find myself staring at your tools and not the project. So the project is very nice. I do love oak but it is a bugger on the edges of my tools. I love the cut nails to Smitty. Very nice step by step presentation. Well done. Keep em coming.

Thanks, all. And Super, oak is definitely a material that exposes edges that aren’t “all they can be.” towards that end, I spent most of Saturday afternoon working the edges of many planes and a couple of chisels.

For the squirrel, I worked it on the pull rather than push, as pictured. Worked great! (you need one!). :-)

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive --

Great blog !Did you have any problem with the steel wool being deposited into the Oak pores ?I made a small Oak clock and didn’t notice until after applying the finish that it looked a little “gray”. : (